Let's be realistic.

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

I saw this drama a couple of years ago now on YouTube... alas it has disappeared. What a wonderful story of the growing friendship and later love between two gentleman in the later years of their life. With all the rubbish that is put out on DVD though the question has to be asked why this excellent drama has never been released on DVD.

The introduction and initial development of the two main characters is very well done.We first see Ray with his mates at the local pub when they all rush out in order to rumble with a visiting rival soccer club's fans. Although Ray and one of his older friends are winded even getting to the fight, they manage to pummel well enough and add one more row to reminisce about from their good old days of brawling. We find that Ray owns and drives a cab, is widowed, has two grown children and keeps his old home. Despite being widowed for 8 years he can't bear to change anything that relates to his departed wife.We next see Jim at the school he attended as a boy and from where he is now retiring as a master. The story of "Beaky" (so nicknamed because of his prominent nose) unrolls as the cab called to take him to the airport (driven by Ray) is instead directed to a clinic where the nose is made less prominent. Jim's forgotten safari jacket and personal notebook left in the car provide the start of the relationship as Ray returns the items and is also where we find that Jim wants to: 1. fall in love, and 2. see the world.The relationship and the story develop so very well, so comfortably, so believably, so tastefully. The acting here is superb and the screenplay solid. Supporting characters are realistic, consistent and help move the solid plot along. Motivations are shown, difficulties are encountered, decisions are made.An elegant and lovely story of two older men finding new lives for themselves make this a rare movie and a highly enjoyable one.

This is quite simply the best single drama the BBC have delivered in years. Just when you thought they were dumbing-down and wasting the licence fee on makeover shows, they hit you with this beautifully observed and painstakingly constructed story of love in later life which gives clichés a wide berth and delivers honest and believable characters coping with the kind of situation that, frankly, just does not get enough exposure in the media.Downtrodden Jim, reaching the end of his usefulness in the teaching profession, wants to experience 'life' before he dies. Unfortunately he's saddled with looking after his elderly father and it begins to look as if he's going to be exchanging one form of stultifying prison existence for another. Then into his life comes Ray, taxi driver and ex-football hooligan, who is serving his own life sentence, enslaved by a family who neither appreciate him nor have any sympathy with his ongoing grief for his dead wife.The two men are opposites in almost every respect, but as they each begin to resolve their personal dilemmas and come to terms with homosexual longings they have suppressed for decades the viewer is on the edge of his or her seat willing them to succeed. By the time they reach the bedroom their tender clumsiness together has been so well established that no graphic details are necessary; we know they'll muddle through somehow.Alun Armstrong is an actor of great depth and integrity and any project bearing his name is always going to be worth watching, but he's a revelation here; his sensitive and understated performance never once strays in the direction of camp parody. Paul Freeman, on the other hand, was a real surprise; not being familiar with his other work I had no idea what to expect but he made Ray a whole person, a man who at last found himself open to the adventure of falling in love. Nor was there a single member of the supporting cast who hit a wrong note anywhere, and the direction and production design were disciplined and - for want of a better word - sane. The whole tone of the play was matter-of-fact and sympathetic; "Hey, guess what, men *do* sometimes fall in love with each other." It may not always be tidy or convenient, but then nor is any *other* aspect of life.Thank you, cast, crew, writer, commissioning editor and everyone else who had the foresight to be involved in this - but most of all, Mr Armstrong and Mr Freeman, thank you for making me believe.

Ageing footie thug and Cockney cabbie Ray (Paul Freeman), a widower with grasping kids, meets refined retired teacher Jim (Alun Armstrong) and strikes up an unusual friendship which forces him to reassess his priorities, his feelings and his prejudices. The BBC drama took what is still a thorny subject and treated it with class and sensitivity, helped enormously by the playing of Armstrong in particular. As Ray's kids, Jason Flemyng and Tamsin Outhwaite have little to do but do it well. As the terminally-ill friend and fellow ex-thug Billy, Karl Johnson is also very good. A well-written, well-directed piece of drama which only lets itself down by the enforced contrast between the backgrounds of the two lead characters, and with the (almost) cop-out ending.